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How You Can Use Prize Promotions to Generate Buzz

8 December, 2016

When run correctly, a prize promotion can be a great way to generate buzz around your business. In addition to offering something to your existing customer base, the process can also put in front of new prospects as well.

In conjunction with Spark & Fuse – a prize promotion agency based in the UK – we’ve put together this useful guide on running a promotional event, which details:

How to give yourself the best chance of success through your efforts

The benefits attached to running a promotional event

Additional things you need to consider

Set Yourself Up for Success – 6 Simple Steps

There are a number of essential points that you need consider prior to getting started on the creation of any prize giveaway:

Make sure you know your audience: It’s essential that you get the pitch of your prize promotion right. Some people will want to do as little as possible to enter it. Others will relish a challenge to try and win something. Market research is invaluable at this initial stage.

Make sure it’s shareable: To reap the rewards of buzz-style marketing, your prize promotion needs to be interesting - to the point where people feel compelled to share it with others. This could be relative in terms of the prize in question or any emotive value the event could carry.

Make sure it’s relevant: You stand a far better chance of attracting interest to your promotional event if it’s relevant. Relevancy could be tied into the actual thing you’re giving away, or what it is people have to do to win (for example, completing a topical quiz).

Make sure it’s worthwhile: If you’re going to invest time in running a prize promotion, you need to ensure that you have the resources available to make it worthwhile. Proper investment, be it financially or through time, will help you to reap more profitable rewards from your efforts.

Make sure you promote it: Whilst you’ll hopefully be running something that people will want to share with others, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to promote it yourself too. Have a clear plan in place in terms of how you plan to gain exposure surrounding your event.

Make sure it’s worth winning: More than anything, make sure the prize you’re offering is worth the investment of someone’s time!

The Buzz Generation Process

Once you have a prize promotion you deem worthy enough to run, you can launch it and start to reap the rewards. There are many different ways buzz could subsequently be generated for your business:

Awareness and Image

Brand Image

Running a giveaway event can be a great way to improve or enhance the public’s perception of your brand. Everyone likes a freebie and if it’s worth people’s time to enter the competition your running, then the generosity should reflect well on your company. As a result, your brand image will receive a boost.

Brand Awareness

A prize promotion is a great way to get your company’s name out in the public sphere. Through both your own, as well as others’ work to raise awareness of any promotion you run, you’ll start to reach a far wider audience than you’ve previously been able to.

Watch Others Bring the Buzz

Social Media Interest

Sometimes it can feel like you’ve got nothing to say on social media, but if you’re running a prize event, you’ll have much more to post about than normal. Not only will you need to post about the promotion itself, you’ll also find yourself fielding queries from those interested in it. The more interactions you attract across your social accounts, the more visibility you’ll subsequently enjoy.

Concurrently, the more visible your brand becomes on social media, the more likely you are to enjoy shares and likes on the platforms you’re using. When this works well, there are very few better examples of buzz in motion.

Links & Press Coverage

Promotional events can provide a welcome SEO boost for your website. If the promotion you’re running is interesting enough, press agency websites and relevant organisations may produce their own coverage of it. If they do this, there’s every chance they’ll include a link to your website, which Google will love.

Ultimately, if the links you achieve are from websites of substantial authority, you could then feel the positive effects of them for years to come.

Added Benefits

Low Advertising ROI

If you manage to run an event that stands out from the crowd, then the interest you draw to your company will significantly outweigh any initial investment you its creation. Few other marketing avenues can bring such an outstanding ROI for such little outlay – and this is the joy of buzz marketing at its best.

Data Capture

In some cases, people will provide you with their contact details as a means to signing up for a chance to win the prize you’re offering. This is a great way to build up a list of prospects that you can use in future marketing communications such as emails. Make sure you’re following the correct laws with any data acquisition.

Stand out from the competition:

A final benefit is that the process can help you to stand out from your competitors. It shows that you’re a company that understands the contemporary advertising world and you recognise where your customers are. If you operate in an industry where no-one else is doing anything similar, this could help your brand to stand out by a mile.

Consider Every Detail

Follow CAP Regulations

It’s absolutely essential that you follow the relevant advertising regulations when running a promotional event. In the UK, CAP are responsible for maintaining advertising codes and offering authoritative advice. If you’re unsure as to whether your campaign will adhere to the law, their website is a great place to start.

Clearly Lay Out Terms & Conditions

To ensure that both your own company – as well as those entering your event – know exactly what’s involved in terms of data usability, possible prizes and rules of entry, you have to make sure the terms & conditions in place are absolutely watertight.

Spark & Fuse can provide you with the knowledge required to ignite your campaign.

As chief crafter of copy, Sean’s flair for writing engaging content continues to prove integral to our internal and client marketing activity. With more than 5 years' digital experience, he joined Evoluted back in 2015. He spends his days managing SEO strategy, producing content and assisting Evoluted’s clients.

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Evoluted is an award-winning digital agency based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. We specialise in bespoke web design & development, digital design and ROI-focused digital marketing.

With a focus on building long-term relationships with our clients, we deliver services including SEO, PPC, web design, bespoke content management systems, e-commerce websites and email marketing. Our extensive base of clients includes large UK and international organisations.